A huge sign of a smiling Miao girl in her traditional costume caught my eye every time I passed by Jun Qin Hua, a small Guizhou restaurant on Meishuguan Houjie. However, the tiny restaurant had just six tables covered with plastic tablecloths, a mish-mash of Guizhou decorations, and looked like many of the thousands of other non-descript restaurants that crowd the streets of Beijing. I seriously doubted whether the food could possibly match the attractive image over its storefront. But one will never know without trying, so I decided to venture in one Saturday for lunch with my family. I was having difficulty choosing our cold appetizer dish, struggling between mi doufu and juanfen, two types of cold rice noodles. Mr. Liu, the helpful manager, noticed the indecision on my face and suggested we order a mixed platter of the two. Mi doufu is steamed rice flour juice mixed with a green juice from xiao baicai, or small Chinese cabbage, while juanfen is simply made of rice flour juice. Both were very good but the mi doufu was exceptional. The essence of the vegetable juice could be tasted in each bite, and was quite refreshing. My doubts about the food evaporated bit by bit as each dish arrived at our table. First to come was a plate of lazi ji (ala Guizhou), bite-sized pieces of chicken smothered in cloves of garlic and crushed chilies. This dish is totally different from Chongqing lazi ji, more exciting in its own unique way. You're guaranteed to fall in love with this dish as long as you're not afraid of garlic. The cloves of garlic was also quite tasty, and left no after-taste. For a vegetable dish we ordered stir-fried juecai, a kind of wild vegetable, which was very tasty. There are several types of juecai in the same family, but the kind we ate had purple stems and a tougher fibrous texture. The wild vegetables were followed by zaola tudou pian, stir-fried potatoes cooked with zaola, a type of crushed chilies popular in Guizhou. “Zaola is Guizhou’s special condiment,” said Liu, adding that the “chilies are stone pounded and then allowed to ferment.” The thin slices of potato had been passed through oil first, which resulted in a crispy and delicious outer shell, but yet a moist and soft centre. It was a hit with the family. Zhe’er gen chao larou is stir-fried “stinky” root with homemade cured meat. The botanical name for this root is houttuynia cordata, and it is commonly used as edging, borders, or bed groundcover by gardeners. For Guizhou natives, however, it's a delicacy. Zhe’er gen is sometimes referred to as yuxing cao, translated literally as smelly fish grass. It is the national dish of the Guizhou people. The leafy part of this vegetable is also eaten in Sichuan, while in Guizhou they eat the roots. The particular and pungent smell of zhe’er gen is much stronger in the root. Although this root is called ‘smelly fish grass,’ the pungent smell isn’t fishy at all; still, it isn't a pleasant smell, unless you’re a true Guizhou native. ASuantang yu, or sour soup fish, came last. I craved this sour soup fish since my trip to Kaili four years ago. The bright scarlet soup is as seductive as the lipstick colors staring out from the pages of Vogue magazine. The sour taste is simply captivating. We ended the meal with huangba, a steamed glutinous rice cake made with brown sugar. It went well with the spicy dishes as it is on the sweet side. It reminded me of niangao, the sweet rice cakes eaten during the Chinese lunar new year. Mr. Liu told us his sister, who grew up in Kaili during the Cultural Revolution, opened the restaurant in 1997. She returned to Beijing just eight years ago, bringing these spicy recipes with her to the Chinese capital. Kaili is a minority village in Guizhou famous for its colorful embroidery.
Add : 88 Meishuguan Houjie
Tel: 6404 7600
Hours: 10am-11pm
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